Cosi

An introduction to Cosi ouis Nowra was inspired to write Cosi after a visit to a performance of Hello Dolly with a group of mental patients in 1970. He worked with this group of patients to produce a version of Trial By Jury which helped many of the patients to “blossom” and also revealed the ignorance of a student leader who ridiculed the patients’ efforts. Nowra claims that the play is a combination of fact and fiction. In Cosi, a mature Nowra looks back and evaluates his youthful self and the political environment in which he grew up. Lewis is a naive young director who is faced with the daunting task of directing a group of mental patients in a play. Cosi Fan Tutte is chosen by the exuberant and forceful Roy who overwhelms the inexperienced Lewis. The rest of the cast is less enthusiastic particularly as the play seems to demand an ability to sing and speak Italian. Roy prevails and Lewis is required to work with a motley cast of characters in a run-down theatre so that Roy’s dream can become a reality. The time Lewis spends with Doug, the pyromaniac, Cherry, the nymphomaniac, Julie, a drug addict, Ruth, a dogged realist, the introverted and silent Henry, the Lithium-addicted pianist Zac, and Roy, the exuberant dreamer, proves to be a humanising experience for Lewis. This experience has repercussions for his personal life as he copes with the contempt and criticism of his girlfriend Lucy and his politically obsessed friend, Nick. Lucy’s betrayal, Lewis’ attraction to Julie and his growing sense of alienation from the political preoccupation of the 1970s all forms part of the fabric of the play as does the performance of Cosi Fan Tutte itself. Structurally, the play uses the device of the play-within-a-play to comment on the drama which is taking place in Lewis’s life outside the theatre and between the “outside” characters, Nick and Lucy, and the inmates. The themes of love and fidelity which are the concerns of Cosi Fan Tutte are played out in the real life